Vivian Video
Vivian Video is the name of this company, run by Brandon Vivian, on which this wiki is focused on. Until at least September 2007, it was previously known as MadTwister Industries. The company itself, under any name, has been around since early 2004. Its primary export is entertainment media in the form of Comics, Music, Video Games, or Videos. The team behind Vivian Video at any given time is often small, and is often subject to change. Its media output frequency varies depending on the amount of time, support, and money available to the team, which is often not much. Headquarters The Vivian Video headquarters is defined by wherever the main setup is located for an extended period of time, meaning short, temporary relocations are excluded. *Taylor, Michigan - 2004 until May 31, 2009 (1st - 2nd Eras) *Gibraltar, Michigan - May 31, 2009 until August 2012 (3rd - 6th Eras) *Southfield, Michigan - August 2012 until May 2013 (6th Era) *Flat Rock, Michigan - May 2013 - September 2014 (7th Era) *Westland, Michigan - September 2014 - Present (7th - 8th Eras) History This is representative of what is currently known about Vivian Video history, and will update as we sort through old content and learn new things about our past. However, this project is not currently given much priority due to small team size and low interest besides from those who work on it. You can explore its history using this timeline: Vivan Video history can roughly be divided into 7 different eras. 1. MadTwister Era (April 2004 - August 2007) : Brandon Vivian, with the encouragement of Ian Beattie, founded MadTwister sometime in early 2004 (April 25, 2004 is the earliest known date). Initially, its purpose was to entertain our fellow classmates with entertaining comics, comedic newsletters, trading cards, and other similar things. Membership was continous, with people jumping in to help make comics and cards and contribute ideas. There were even some online comics, starting in 2006 when they began being uploaded to SmackJeeves, where they can still be found and continue to be uploaded today. Most other online efforts from this era, however, did not amount to much. Due to lacklaster dating practices and poor organization at the time, much of the content from the era remains a chronological mystery. Although this era probably saw the creation of more content than any other era, much of it remains unreleased, not formatted or organized properly to be released. The presentation was early and rough, and it's hoped to one day be revisited so it can be brought into new light. Not much changed in the nature of our content until early 2007, when it began experimenting with digital music and video games, but even then the uptake was slow. The real changes didn't happen until the summer, when at some point (August 27, 2007 is the earliest known date), the group was rebranded as Vivian Video. 2. Renaissance Era (September 2007 - May 2009) : The group was already beginning to feel entirely different, with all of the old members having mostly gone, and with the media focus changing, so the name change to Vivian Video was uncontested and seemed like the way to go to set the group apart from the old days. Under its new name, Vivian Video ran with the ideas of digital music, comics, video games, and art, with the production of physical media going into heavy decline. Most projects were largely individual, and as such were largely unfinished for lack of inspiration and assistance. Most video games Vivian Video has attempted producing date from this era. Online comics continued throughout this era, starting off strong but then declining heavily by late 2008. For the first time, most of the membership was based on online members, with many ambitious projects and ideas. Few ever got very far though, due to bad communication and lack of commitment. Notably, however, the group gained a YouTube presence, although mainly only uploading music based videos initially. Many new things were tried and left unfinished, as the newly imagined group struggled to find a calling, until the influx of new members in early 2009 paved the way for new ideas and possibilities. 3. LPA Era (June 2009 - February 2011) : Many new members joined in 2009, many of whom stayed for quite some time afterward and brought many new ideas, assistance, and inspiration. The focus changed to video game based videos, most notably with creation of the Let's Play Awesome series by Brandon Vivian and Thomas Quigley in June 2009, which would remain a staple throughout the era. Other shows were proposed and even filmed, but remain unreleased, such as Clean Slate and an unfinished pilot for Mad Mad Reviewer. Notably, 60 Second Comics started during this era, which has since become the flagship comic for Vivian Video. Live action videos began being experimented with in this era, some of them eventually being released and others not, such as the Pablo and Pedro videos, How to Purchase a Car, and Hector the Headcrab, the first and only Machinima video by the group. Others were planned and even slightly filmed, but remain unfinished. Still, it foreshadowed what was to come. 4. Stage Era (March 2011 - September 2011) : Brandon Vivian's first album, Subfloral, was released on March 23, 2011, comprised mostly of songs from the Renaissance Era. More videos continued to be released on YouTube, and 60 Second Comics continued on SmackJeeves and ComicFury. It became increasingly obvious that in order to unite our audience and all our content under one roof, we were going to need a website, and so on May 7, 2011, vivianvideo.com went live. Although initally very rough, much of this era was spent improving it, organizing our media on it, and setting the stage for the whirlwind of productivity that was to come. 5. Industrial Era (October 2011 - July 2012) : The previous era had not been the most inspirational, with very little new content and very low member participation. Then, on October 13, 2011, a musical breakthrough was achieved with the song Digital Industry, a song which heavily influenced all music produced by Vivian Video ever since. This proved quite inspirational, and so Brandon Vivian began rallying the team back together to come up other exciting new things to carry the group forward, with the idea being to focus on comedic live action video. The next breakthrough came in the form Bomhimmer Teaches Nuclear Physics, produced by Brandon Vivian and Anthony Regits, which served as proof of concept, inspiring the rest of the team. In January 2012, the team came together to produce the first Door to Door and the first Ghost Hunteringers, both of which have been highly influential on many projects since. The rest of the year saw the creation and revisiting of other series such as Zack Stick, the Vivian Video Skit Show, Mad Mad Reviewer, Room Mates, LPA, and more. Several older projects were revived during this era as well, and The Digital Industry album was finished and released. Several new members joined specifically for this era, bringing the membership to an all time high. 6. LTU Era (August 2012 - May 2013) : After the Summer of 2012, Brandon Vivian began attending Lawrence Technological University. Most of the members from the previous era were similarly moving on to other things, and so Vivian Video placed flyers around the campus seeking new membership. This and other efforts succeeded in bringing together a fluctuating group of members who met as weekly as possible and produced various live action and video game related videos, including various Let's Plays and an attempt at reviving Clean Slate. Most of the live action videos were filmed for the as of yet still unreleased Vivian Video Skit Show, which has been trapped in development since it was first suggested in the Industrial Era. A large amount of this content remained unreleased for many years, but it was still a building block for the evolution of Vivian Video meetings in future eras. 7. Outreach Era (June 2013 - March 2015) : After the LTU Era, membership fell sharply with a lack of consistency in availability of the majority of previous members and the difficulty in finding new members after Brandon Vivian's departure from LTU for Specs Howard. This era was largely reliant on periodic members, whoever was available at a given time. This ranged from classmates at Specs Howard, to random appearances from friends. Due to this, not a lot of work was done on major projects, although a lot was still worked on behind the scenes, and there was still content produced from Specs related projects. Largely, it was difficult maintaining focus and mustering motivation for original group originating content. Nonetheless, some progress was still being made behind the scenes, with emphasis on improving already existing infrastructure and building skills to be used later on. The current lack of organization of documentation in this era makes it difficult to quantify what exactly was accomplished, but it was certainly a mild era for actual releases. It was certainly, though, an experimental era in many ways, which would serve to benefit future endeavors. 8. Curtain Era (April 2015 - Present) : After increased membership difficulties, Vivian Video largely went dormant, although with general work still being carried behind the scenes. Although the search continues for potential members, with some promising leads, currently the direction and focus of the group is tentative. A hopeful goal for this era, while working out a long term plan, is to catch up unreleased content from previous eras to reestablish interest in the group. Contact If you wish to contact Vivian Video for questions, information, etc. you can email them at vivianvideo@gmail.com To see a list of all other team members, click here. Category:fix